Pregnant al Sadr commander an unlikely warrior in Iraq

Seven months pregnant, woman helps command al Sadr's militia

HANNAH ALLAM, Knight Ridder Tribune News |
July 31, 2004

BAGHDAD, IRAQ - Umm Muhammad's green eyes flashed one day last week as she listened to the imam at a rundown Baghdad mosque preach about how women should be silent and unseen, traveling only "from the home to the grave."

She knew the edict didn't apply to her; the same imam had blessed her before battle when she became one of the first female commanders in rebel cleric Muqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.

"Even my husband didn't know I was fighting, or he pretended not to know," Umm Muhammad, 34, said. "He tells me, 'One day you're going to go and never come back.' I tell him I dream of martyrdom."

The presence of women in the ranks of al Sadr's militia is another sign that al Sadr is building his military capability.

Now, with a cease-fire and a government ban on militias in place, al Sadr's Mahdi Army is relying more on women like Umm Muhammad — smart, covert and willing to die — to transport guns and gather intelligence.

At least 150 women in the Mahdi Army are being trained as suicide bombers, weapons experts and intelligence agents, according to a dozen female recruits and their male commanders in Baghdad and Shiite holy cities.

Umm Muhammad, who's now seven months pregnant, received her own brigade in the early months of her pregnancy and shared the weapons expertise she calls "the only benefit" reaped from Saddam's regime.

Saddam made gun training mandatory for women during the Iran-Iraq war.

On a sweltering Friday this month, Umm Muhammad's soldiers pushed her toward the only chair in the teeming women's section of the mosque, in deference to her pregnancy.

"If it's a boy, I'll name him Muqtada," she said. "But I'm hoping for a girl, so I can train her myself."